The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Build Back Better Act, which includes federal funding to help stop child hunger.
The legislation would expand the Community Eligibility Program to provide free school meals for 8.9 million additional students through July 2026. An additional $50 million would go toward continuing to provide Summer Electronic Benefits through the summer of 2024.
Under the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (Summer EBT) program, families would receive $65 per eligible child each month during the summer.
The bill would also offer $250 million in grants and monetary incentives during fiscal year 2022 to help improve the nutritional quality of school meals and snacks, increase procurement of local food and more. An additional $30 million in grant money would be made available to schools to purchase new equipment and participate in training to help serve more scratch-made meals.
It now heads to the Senate for review.